This invention refers to a machine for rapidly fitting metal runners on a drawer.
In the furniture drawer manufacturing technology, to enable the drawers to slide/use is made of metal runners generally shaped in the form of a Z which constitute rails which slidingly receive wheels pivoted on complementary runners fitted in the compartment which houses the drawer in the furniture unit. The runners are applied close to the lower edge of each side panel of the drawer, with the lower wing of the Z constituting a resting surface for the lower end of the side panel, while the upper wing of the Z forms the aforesaid rail. Each drawer is consequently fitted with a special pair of runners.
Said runners are normally made according to two types: the first type consists of runners which can be fastened by means of screws inserted in the lower end of the side panel of the drawer, through holes made in the lower wing of the Z; the second type of runner is provided with fitting means which enable it to be secured without screws.
A runner has been proposed as described in the Italian patent 1,248,585 which corresponds to an abandoned U.S. application No. 07/899,611. Said runner is provided with an extension of the lower wing of the Z forming a plurality of tabs which clasp the lower edge of the side panel of the drawer. Advantageously, in order to optimize the requirement of sheet metal, a pair of runners according to the aforesaid application is obtained by cutting the pair from a single portion of sheet metal, the plurality of individual extensions, or tabs, of the lower wing of the Z of one runner being cut from the lower wing of the Z of the other runner. In this way, each pair of runners, constituting a single portion of sheet metal before cutting, can be obtained while economizing considerably on material.
The general scope of this invention is to provide a machine for rapidly fitting metal runners clamped to a drawer, which is particularly simple in structure and permits a high working speed.